The wild spending the Obama administration plans throughout the next nine years will drive annual deficits to such stratospheric levels that the amount of federal debt held by the public will top $20 trillion dollars. That figure is more than twice what the public federal debt is today.
So says the Congressional Budget Office in its latest analysis of Obama's fiscal 2012 budget.
Federal debt held by the public is that debt, according to the Government Accounting Office, "held by all investors outside of the federal government, including individuals, corporations, state or local governments, the Federal Reserve banking system, and foreign governments."
It is separate from the debt held in government accounts, such as Social Security and Medicare. Totaled, the two equal the entire federal debt, which is now $14.2 trillion.
GAO did not estimate what the total federal debt would be in 2020, but it will be more than $20 trillion, with federal debt held by the public composing most of it.
